move to the Philippines

Are you thinking of retiring to the Philippines? I moved to this group of 7,107 islands with my beautiful Filipina wife over nine years ago. Aside from getting used to men peeing in public in broad daylight, there are other issues to deal with in this Southeast Asian “paradise.” Here’s my list of 10 Things You Need to Know before Moving to the Philippines.

I’ve resided in the Philippines for over eight years now. Thankfully, by the grace of God I met a beautiful Filipina through a pen pal service in June of 1999. We married in January 2000 upon my first trip to the Philippines. While I occasionally might complain about the power outages, brownouts, on our island province of Guimaras, I wouldn’t trade living in “paradise” for anything. Let me present to you my “Top 5 Reasons for Moving to the Philippines.”

Here’s the latest progress report on our new home in the Philippines on the mango island province of Guimaras in Western Visayas were we reside. Construction is going into Week Five and the following pictures were taken only a few days after the latest post regarding this enterprise. Our new house will be the dwelling for five people and covers over 3,000 square feet. It will have four bedrooms and four corresponding CR’s, Comfort Rooms, one for each bedroom which will include a guest bedroom.

Certain passenger trucks in the Philippines, such as Dodge Rams, can be difficult to find. But we narrow our search for a new vehicleand after visiting the local Chevrolet, Toyota and Foton dealerships in Iloilo City, we’ve gotten the best deal from Isuzu. We’ve ruled out the Nissan Navara (ugly), Mitsubishi Strada (short truck bed), Mazda BT-50 (price) and Tata Xenon (no automatic transmission and untested new truck from India), Ford Ranger (I’m a Chevy man from way back but the Chevy Colorado only comes in a 4×4 automatic model and is 400,000 pesos more expensive than the 4×2 AT Isuzu we looked at.)

Chances are if you’re reading this article, there’s a strong possibility you’re considering retiring to the Philippines. What’s your plan for moving to the Philippines? I hope you have one. Moving to this archipelago of 7,107 islands without a detailed strategy once your boots hit the ground is about as smart as tugging on Superman’s cape. If you believe you can find a job in the Philippines, even though you might have a skill such as a carpenter or a plumber, I want whatever you’re smoking. Moving here with unrealistic expectations and no guaranteed source of monthly income is a gargantuan mistake. Frankly, you can save yourself a lot of grief and stay put.

As regular readers of Philippine know, I recently visited the United States after a five year absence, to visit my Dad in Las Vegas. Sin City is about the worst place in America to get a realistic balanced view of the US, especially for a guy like myself that spent most of his life in the Midwest, Central Illinois, but after the recent trip to America, this post will attempt to explain why I feel our move to the Philippines was the right decision.

Shopping in Iloilo City. Whenever the word “shopping” is mentioned, my spouse’s eyes light up like a Christmas tree on shabu. And incidentally, since this is September, one of the“Ber” months, Christmas season has officially started in the Philippines, which has the longest Christmas season in the world. Be prepared to hear “Jingle Bell Rock” 24/7 in all the big malls now until early January.

Our brother-in-law, Joery, has recently completely another new project down on The Farm in Guimaras, our home province in the Philippines. Joery is our all-around general handyman and will be the foreman on our new house that we will have built on the mango province later this year. He’s the proverbial “jack-of-all-trades” and has excellent … Read moreAnother New Project Down on The Farm in Guimaras